Flam

Flam is a village of barely five hundred people at the inner end of Aurlandsfjord, a branch of the mighty Sognefjord. It would be unremarkable except for one thing: the Flam Railway, a twenty-kilometre line that climbs from sea level to the mountain station at Myrdal through a landscape of waterfalls, tunnels carved through granite, and valleys so steep the engineering borders on the absurd. The train pauses at Kjosfossen waterfall, and the scale of the water crashing down is something no screen can convey.

The fjord itself rewards exploration. Kayak the Naeroyfjord — the narrowest and most dramatic branch, also UNESCO-listed — where the mountains close in to just two hundred and fifty metres apart and the water reflects everything like a mirror. The Stegastein viewpoint, a cantilevered platform jutting over Aurlandsfjord, offers a perspective that is genuinely vertigo-inducing.

When to go: May through September for the full experience — railway, fjord cruises, and hiking. June and July for the longest days and greenest valleys. The railway runs year-round, and winter brings snow-covered scenery of a different order.